Oklahoma’s Black Mass, Texas and the ‘Patent Nonsense’ of Nihilism

In case you hadn’t heard, some satanists in Oklahoma City are putting on their annual edition of the black mass (I wouldn’t dignify it by capitalizing it) on Sept. 21, complete with, they say, a Consecrated Host.

Possibly due to the black mass controversy that erupted in Boston back in May — click here for a piece I did for Breitbart News that sums of up the whole thing, with a twist — the Oklahoma City event, which has been going on for a while, is front-page news this year.

On Saturday morning, I talked with Oklahoma state legislator Rebecca Hamilton, who blogs at Public Catholic, about what Archbishop Paul Coakley is doing to handle the controversy.

Click here to see the details in another Breitbart piece from Monday, but basically he’s calling for prayers to St. Michael, Holy Hours and a Eucharistic procession and prayer service on Sept. 21 at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Oklahoma City (pictured above).

Concerned that the turnout in Catholic-light Oklahoma might seem thin compared to Catholic-heavy Boston, Hamilton and Coakley have put out a call to their neighbor to the South, saying:

Can you wait with me for one hour?

Sometimes Catholics wait with Him in Eucharistic Devotion. But, on Sept. 21, we are called to wait with Him in a situation that amounts to a living witness to our Faith.

Satanists have planned a black mass at the Oklahoma Civic Center on that day. We ask Texas Catholics to join Archbishop Coakley as he leads a Eucharistic Procession, followed by a Benediction, at 3 p.m. Central Time, at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, at 1901 NW 18th, in Oklahoma City.

Let’s make this planned desecration of the Holy Mass and Our Lord in the Eucharist redound into a public outpouring of our love for Jesus. This black mass, which is intended to mock Jesus Christ, can be a time of witness to how much we love Him.

Texans, don’t miss this chance to stand up for Jesus. Be in Oklahoma City at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church at 3 p.m. on Sept. 21.

We’ll see whether the Lone Star State comes through for the Sooner State!

A lot of what Hamilton and I talked about didn’t make it into the Breitbart piece, but it’s thoughtful, provocative stuff and deserves to be heard.

The Oklahoma City Civic Center that’s renting out space for the black mass fears being sued if it cancels it, making Hamilton wonder if a preacher wanting to stage a Koran burning would get the same consideration.

She said, “The point here is that we’ve become a post-Christian culture. That’s really what we’re dancing around here, is that America has become post-Christian America, at least in terms of its government and the social ethos that’s emanating from certain — I hate to use the word because it’s so overused — but certain elite organizations.

“It’s a very interesting situation for us to be in, because fully 70 percent of Americans are Christians, yet we’re allowing ourselves to be run over. This is a democracy, and we don’t have to allow ourselves to be run over.”

Of course, if Christians do try to exercise their rights in the public square, they’re immediately accused of being haters, bigots and would-be theocrats. That’s something with which Hamilton is very familiar.

“Yeah, I don’t see it that way,” she said. “I’ve had people call me a theocrat, because I’m pro-life. I’m an elected official, and so that makes me a theocrat. That is patent nonsense.

“The truth of the matter is, as far as I can tell, and this is from being pretty up close and personal with the ugly side of politics. I hesitate to call these people liberals, because I don’t think they have much to do with liberalism.

“I call them nihilists. That’s what they are to me. What I’ve seen is that object to the fact that traditional Christianity has values and standards which limit the things that they want to do.

“Gay marriage would be an example; abortion would be an example; polygamy is another example; euthanasia is an example; egg harvesting is an example; pornography is an example.

“You can just go on and on, but the root of it is, every time, is that they want to exploit people, and Christianity says, ‘You can’t do this.’ Now they’ve created all sorts of arguments based on what Mary Ann Glendon calls ‘rights talk.’ They’ve imbued people with the right to kill, that it’s a human right to kill your child.

“That’s patent nonsense.

“You can exploit women and harvest their bodies like farm animals. That is patent nonsense. It’s compassionate to kill people because they’re sick or old or helpless. That’s patent nonsense.

“But they’re able to sell this because they control so much of the media, and the just pound it as propaganda endlessly.

“The problem here is, and this comes from having been in politics. I have held office for 18 years, and I have confronted this evil over and over and over again, is when somebody wants to kill another person, or somebody wants to exploit another person, and you tell them they can’t, they become totally vicious.

“That’s what we’re dealing with here. There is no deeper construct than that. We are dealing with the raw emotions of people who have given themselves permission to destroy other people, and they hate Christianity because Christianity says you can’t do that.

“And if you want to get really basic, that’s Satan versus Jesus, and that’s what we’re dealing with.”

The views expressed here are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of CatholicVote.org

About Author

A native of the Adirondacks and Saratoga Springs in northern New York State, journalist and fiction writer Kate O'Hare now lives in Los Angeles, where she's on a neverending quest to find a parish in the L.A. Archdiocese with orthodox preaching, excellent traditional music and parking.